Former ballet student alleges sexual assault in suit against RWB, teacher

A former dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet is suing the company and a former teacher she alleges sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.

The 35-year-old woman accuses former dance instructor and photographer Bruce Monk of sexual assault, child exploitation and human trafficking, among other offences, in a statement of claim filed in the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench on Nov. 22.

The woman suffered "mental distress, emotional pain and suffering" and is seeking $300,000 in general damages, the suit states. She is also suing for an unspecified amount in special damages, as well as an additional $100,000 in punitive, aggravated and/or exemplary damages.

The woman, who is now a mother of three, was a teenage member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's professional division from 1991 to 1998 who went on to earn a degree in dance with the Winnipeg School of Contemporary Dancers.

The suit states the woman was an "elite ballerina" who was forced to abandon a career in dance because of what Monk put her through.  (more...)

Former ballet student alleges sexual assault in suit against RWB, teacher

Italians Are Crazy About Cars. Or Just Crazy.

ROME — One of Italy’s most celebrated playboys has been arrested in New York after allegedly faking his own kidnapping following a two-day drugs and alcohol bender with an escort.

Lapo Elkann, an heir to Italy’s Fiat empire, is suspected of faking the kidnap to squeeze money out of his family after he ran out of cash to buy drugs.

The 39-year-old grandson of Gianni Agnelli, the celebrated patriarch of one of Italy’s richest families, was charged with falsely reporting an incident.

A New York police spokesman said Elkann had been released and the case would be dealt with in court.

Neither Elkann’s publicist nor the Agnelli family’s investment holding, Exor, wished to comment. Elkann is alleged to have called his family on the weekend, claiming he was being held against his will by someone who would harm him if he did not pay her US$10,000, reported U.S. media.

He had flown to New York last Thursday for Thanksgiving and reportedly went to the escort’s apartment in Manhattan, where the pair snorted cocaine and smoked marijuana for two days. He ran out of cash and became indebted to the escort after buying more drugs.

A representative of the family arranged to deliver the money but also informed police who arrested the pair  (more...)

Fiat heir fakes own kidnapping, collects $10,000 ransom from family — buys more drugs from escort

The madness goes way back:

How Alfa Romeo Was Once Fascism's Lasting Legacy

Canadian teacher stalked students for sex

A lust-crazed Canadian teacher who stalked students in Connecticut for sex and sent her young charges naked selfies has pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault.

Allison Marchese, 39, confessed that she flooded two teens with emojis, raunchy sexts and skin shots.

The English teacher is married with two children and her husband taught at the same school in Madison, Conn., the Daily Star reports.

One of the boys testified that the blond beauty summoned him to her classroom where they kissed and then she started fondling his penis. The tarty teacher then locked the door and performed oral sex on the 17-year-old.

If the boy told anyone of their illicit antics, Marchese threatened him, noting "her father was an abusive man who had spent time in jail and had contacts in the Mafia".  (more...)

Canadian teacher stalked students for sex

Background:

Cops: Teacher Warned Teen Of ‘Mafia Ties’ When He Tried Blackmailing Her Over Mind-Blowing Sex

Focus: Peter Thiel, the proud gay accepts Donald Trump as the President of United States

Peter Thiel has just hit the TRUMP Card. Assumptions, clarifications, speculations - everything is happening and a lot of buzzes too, because Donald Trump might just be the President of the United States of America. If you’d ask me who says that? Well, Peter Thiel has openly declared it and now the contest of elections just got spicier than it already was.Along with that, he gave some anti-comments against the other party leader Hillary-ously.

Last night in Cleveland, the billionaire of Silicon Valley; Peter Thiel addressed thousands of party members and journalists at the Republican National Convention and gave his political views. Peter's opinions were so much confident that he actually accepted Donald Trump as the President of United States of America. The co-founder of PayPal; Peter Thiel further claimed that he is always proud to be an American. Hmm; get you properly I suppose.Ironically his partner does not agree with him AT ALL. There are always drastic opinions when people are working in business, but this one is very much- actually it just diverts to the other side because the other co-founder of PayPal, Max Levchin gave an opinion to the Bloomberg saying that he feels that Theil’s supports for Trump might just be an April Fool’s day joke.

The support of Peter Thiel is pretty confusing for everyone; right from Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg; EVERYONE- after all the other prominent members of the tech industry feel that Trump stands against the idea of open exchange of opinions and productive engagement of the outside world which is the most important thing needed in the virtual environment of today.   (more...)

Peter Thiel, the proud gay accepts Donald Trump as the President of United States in Republican National Convention Speech

Related:

The Homofascist Who Loved Me: Peter Thiel Becomes a Trump Delegate

Gay Nazi, Gay Aryan, Gay Supremacist

The Pink Swastika as Holocaust Revisionist History

Why would Thiel be so unrepresentative of western liberal gays? Could his family roots in Frankfurt, Germany have shaped his view of politics? Is there a certain affinity for I.G. Farben, Deutsch Bank, and the infamous cradle of psychological warfare, the Institute for Social Research -- the Frankfurt School? Is there a hidden homofascist hand at work?

Another interesting link to Frankfurt is Donald Trump's close relationship to Deutsch Bank, exposed here:

FTR #927 The Trumpenkampfverbande, Part 6: Locker Room Eclipse

Who did Thiel back before he had to accept Trump as his frontman? We may get a few clues as to where this is all going:

Peter Thiel Is a Big Ted Cruz Backer

Donald Trump's "Polish Brigade"

...During the campaign, Trump targeted disaffected, alienated blue-collar workers, chafing under the effects of globalization and lingering damage from the financial collapse of 2008. “The Donald” also, of course, made expelling illegal immigrants a cornerstone of his campaign. There could be no better balance in which to hang the integrity of President-elect Donald Trump than to examine the chapter Johnson titled “The Polish Brigade.” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 69-76.)

When demolishing the old Bonwit Teller building in New York City to make way for one of his signature projects, Trump not only broke a promise to salvage the valuable art deco piece at the building’s entrance (providing disingenuous responses to criticism about this), but employed illegal Polish immigrants to dismantle the structure. The abuse to which Trump subjected those immigrants is striking and bodes poorly for those elements of “Middle America” who supported him during the election.

The “Polish Brigade” were not given even elementary working tools, nor basic safety equipment such as hard hats. They worked long hours at very low pay under horrible working conditions and were often not paid at all, until they threatened a top Trump assistant, Thomas Macari.

“Instead of hiring an experienced demolition contractor, Trump chose Kaszycki & Sond Contractors, a window washing business owned by a Polish emigre. Upward of two hundred men began demolishing the building in midwinter 1980. The men worked without hard hats. They lacked facemasks, even though asbestos–known to cause incurable cancers–swirled all around them. They didn’t have goggles to protect their eyes from the bits of concrete and steel that sometimes flew through the air like bullets. The men didn’t have power tools either; they brough down the twelve-story building with sledgehammers. . . .

. . . . The demolition workers were not American citizens, but ‘had recently arrived from Poland,’ a federal court later determined. The court also found that ‘they were undocumented and worked ‘off the books.’ No payroll records were kept, no Social Security or other taxes were withheld and they were not paid in accordance with wage laws. They were told they would be paid $4.00 or in some cases $5.00 an hour for working 12-hour shifts seven days a week. In fact, they were paid irregularly and incompletely.’ . . .

. . . . Fed up that their paychecks kept bouncing, some of the workers corralled Thomas Macari, Trump’s personal representative they showed him to the edge of one of the higher floors and asked if he would like them to hang him over the side. The workerrs, likely hungry, demanded their pay. Otherwise, no work.

When Macari told his boss what had happened, Trump placed a panicked telephone call to Daniel Sullivan–a labor fixer, FBI informant, suspect in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, and Trump’s personal negotiator for the Grand Hyatt contract with the hotel workers’ union.

‘Donald told me he was having some difficulties,’ Sullivan later testified, ‘and he admitted to me that–seeking my advice–he had some illegal Polish employees on the job. . . .

. . . .There is no record of any federal, state, or city safety inspector filing a report during the demolition. In a 1990 Trenton restaurant interview. I asked Sullivan how a project of this size could have been erected in the heart of Manhattan without attracting government job safety inspectors. Sullivan just looked at me. When I widened my eyes to make clear that I wanted an explicitly answer, he said, ‘You know why.’ When I persisted, anticipating that Sullivan might specify bribes to inspectors, he said that unions and concrete suppliers were not the only areas where Trump’s lawyer, Roy Cohn, had influence. . . . ” (The Making of Donald Trump; pp. 70-72.)...

Source:

FTR #934 The Making of Donald Trump (Top Banana Republic), Part 3

Background:

The Making of Donald Trump

Parents opting for private schools over sex-ed curriculum

There’s been an explosion of private religious schools opening in this province since the implementation of the new sex-ed curriculum in September of last year.

According to numbers obtained from the ministry of education, 127 new private schools have opened since 2015 — many of them private Christian, Islamic and other faith schools.

It’s not much of a stretch to link the boom to the government’s roll-out of its controversial sex-ed curriculum.

Private schools don’t have to teach the provincial curriculum.

“As private schools operate independently of the Ministry of Education, the ministry does not regulate, license, accredit or otherwise oversee the operation of private schools,” said ministry spokesman Heather Irwin.  (more...)

Parents opting for private schools over sex-ed curriculum

Sex abuse victims are all over country as scandal grows with four police forces investigate claims

Serial abuser Barry Bennell has served three jail terms

Thousands of young footballers could have been abused by a nationwide paedophile ring.

Four police forces revealed on Friday they are investigating claims involving past allegations of sexual abuse that have rocked football over the past 10 days.

Former Manchester City youth player Jason Dunford, who says he was targeted by prolific abuser Barry Bennell, spoke of his fears that the scandal could even include a network of paedophiles beyond the UK.

On Friday night there were claims that Crewe Alexandra had first been alerted to their former youth coach Bennell’s activities in the late 1980s — but failed to sack him or alert police.

‘There could be thousands of boys abused and I’m not exaggerating,’ said Dunford, who had fought off Bennell as a 13-year-old schoolboy at a Butlin’s camp.  (more...)

Sex abuse victims are all over country as scandal grows with four police forces investigate claims

Disgraced Ottawa priest accused of sexually assaulting yet another minor

A retired Ottawa priest, who has admitted he suffered from a powerful attraction to adolescents as a young cleric, appeared in court Friday on historical sexual assault charges.

Rev. Barry McGrory, 82, faces two counts of gross indecency and two counts of indecent assault in connection with offences alleged to have occurred in the late 1960s. The charges are based on the Criminal Code as it existed at that time.

McGrory, who now lives in Toronto, was released on a $10,000 bond and ordered not to communicate with the victim, or take work that would put him in a position of trust with anyone under the age of 16.

His case was remanded to December.

Outside court, McGrory, dressed in a blue blazer and grey pants, refused to tell reporters how he intended to plead in the case, saying: “It’s none of your business.”

Ottawa police said Friday investigators are concerned there could be more potential victims out there.  (more...)

Disgraced Ottawa priest accused of sexually assaulting yet another minor

More coverage:

Former Ottawa priest charged in historical sexual assault case

Background:

Clergy abuse victim furious over diocesan 'stonewalling'

Women demand police re-open investigation into Ottawa priest with history of sex abuse

Abuse victim speaks for first time, demands to know why priest not defrocked

‘The dam has been busted’: Former English soccer players expose sexual abuse by youth team coaches

A sign for the sports academy of the English soccer team Crewe Alexandra

LONDON — Former English soccer players who were subjected to years of sexual abuse by youth team coaches entrusted with their care are breaking cover to expose the game’s dark secrets.

Harrowing stories of assaults on young players by men they relied on to turn them into professionals are forcing authorities and clubs to finally address how child abusers were able to exploit their positions of power and why the behaviour wasn’t confronted earlier.

The abuses were first uncovered two decades ago with the conviction of English coach Barry Bennell in the United States and his homeland. Bennell worked in academies across northwest England including Manchester City, Stoke and Crewe Alexandra, which was renowned as a centre for turning raw talent into the complete footballer.

The torment suffered by players is only now receiving more widespread attention along with a determination to discover how far reaching sexual exploitation of youngsters has been in English soccer.  (more...)

‘The dam has been busted’: Former English soccer players expose sexual abuse by youth team coaches

More coverage:

Football sex abuse claims: More former players speak out

Barry Bennell: Convicted paedophile worked with at least four professional clubs

Football sex abuse claims: Police widen their inquiries

Background:

Football's sexual abuse victims into 'double figures,' according to PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor

Everything Is A Rich Man's Trick

IMDb: JFK to 9/11: Everything Is a Rich Man's Trick

Related:

How the Bush family made its fortune from the Nazis: The Dutch Connection

Bush Family Links to Nazi Germany: “A Famous American Family” Made its Fortune from the Nazis

Defence lawyer says evidence against pastor Brent Hawkes in sexual assault trial is 'weird'

Brent Hawkes' lawyer told his gross indecency trial Wednesday that the evidence against the Toronto pastor is "weird," but the prosecutor contended that doesn't make it any less plausible.

Defence lawyer Clayton Ruby said in his closing argument that the entire case will be remembered as weird, amid "an abundance of evidence" that the testimony of the witnesses is unreliable.

"The weirdness tells you things that ordinary cases don't tell you," Ruby told provincial court Judge Alan Tufts in Kentville, N.S.

A middle-age man testified last week that Hawkes led him down a hallway naked during a drunken get-together at his trailer in Greenwood, N.S., in the mid-1970s, and forced oral sex on him in a bedroom when he was about 16 years old. Two other men have also testified they attended the get-together as teenagers, and one said he witnessed Hawkes performing oral sex on the complainant.

Hawkes, a high-profile rights activist, was then a teacher in the Annapolis Valley.

Responding to Ruby, Crown lawyer Bob Morrison said weirdness does not necessarily diminish probability.

"Just because it's weird doesn't make it less plausible that it happened. A lot of weird things happen and we see that all the time in provincial court," said Morrison just after the trial wrapped up for the day.  (more...)

Defence lawyer says evidence against pastor Brent Hawkes in sexual assault trial is 'weird'

More coverage:

Decision in Brent Hawkes sex assault trial put over til January

Background:

Lawyers to make closing arguments in Brent Hawkes' gross indecency trial

Is "weird" the latest sexual orientation?

Football's sexual abuse victims into 'double figures,' according to PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor

There are now double figures of former footballers claiming to have suffered sexual abuse from their coaches, according to Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor.

The players' union boss was speaking to Press Association Sport after Cheshire Police confirmed that 11 individuals have now contacted them as they expand their investigation into a coach's activities over a period of three decades from the 1970s onward.

Police have been re-investigating convicted paedophile Barry Bennell after ex-footballer Andy Woodward waived his anonymity from an earlier trial to tell The Guardian last week about his abuse by Bennell in the 1980s while he was at Crewe.

Woodward's harrowing account prompted another former Crewe player, Steve Walters, to tell The Guardian about his alleged abuse by Bennell on Tuesday, before former Tottenham and Liverpool star Paul Stewart told the Daily Mirror about his treatment by a different youth coach in the 1970s.  (more...)

Football's sexual abuse victims into 'double figures,' according to PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor

More coverage:

Football paedophile scandal: 'Mr Crewe' Dario Gradi denies he knew his coach Barry Bennell was a child molester as the NSPCC says FIFTY people have called their abuse hotline

Background:

Second footballer reveals abuse by serial paedophile Barry Bennell

Author Steven Galloway confirms sexual assault accusation in first statement after UBC firing

Fun while it lasted

VANCOUVER — Author Steven Galloway has issued his first statement since he was suspended a year ago by the University of British Columbia over what it has only described as “serious allegations.”

He was fired as creative writing chairman in June under a veil of secrecy. He said in the statement issued Wednesday by his lawyers that the “harm flowing from UBC’s conduct” has reached such a level that he asked his counsel to provide clarity.

Galloway confirms that he was accused of sexual assault but says the only complaint substantiated by a former judge’s investigation was that he had an affair with a student.

“Mr. Galloway profoundly regrets his conduct and wishes to apologize for the harm that it has caused. He does not seek to minimize it or to hide from it,” the statement says.

“He seeks fair treatment for all involved, and an end to the scurrilous assertions and accusations that have proliferated in the vacuum of information.”

The university tasked Mary Ellen Boyd, a former B.C. Supreme Court judge, with investigating complaints against Galloway in December. Her report, submitted in April, has never been made public.  (more...)

Author Steven Galloway confirms sexual assault accusation in first statement after UBC firing

Background:

Author Steven Galloway fired from UBC after investigation of ‘serious allegations’

Girls found by stranger after wandering from East York school

A Toronto woman is demanding answers after her six-year-old daughter and a friend were allowed to wander away from their East York elementary school on Tuesday.

The Grade 1 students, who are in different classes at Holy Cross Catholic School, were found by a stranger as they were trying to jaywalk across Donlands Avenue, a busy four-lane road.

“I yelled, ‘Stay right there!’” said Deirdre, who was outside raking leaves when she noticed the girls about to dodge traffic. “I asked them if they had an adult with them, and they said no.”

Deirdre told CityNews she considered calling police, but one of the girls said she lived close by.

“So I followed them,” Deirdre said. “She ran in and knocked on the door and the mom came out and she was aghast.”  (more...)

Girls found by stranger after wandering from East York school

More coverage:

Mom furious over school's handling of child who wandered away

Calls grow for recount of U.S. vote amid concerns about Russian hacking

As the U.S. election wore down, Donald Trump repeatedly warned the process could be “rigged,” refusing to even say if he would accept results that didn’t favour him.

Two weeks after Trump’s stunning victory, the spectre of a fixed vote is suddenly emerging again, but this time academics and election-rights advocates are suggesting the Republican himself might have benefited.

And they’re raising the possibility that a foreign nation — namely, Russia — may have distorted the free vote in a country that often calls itself the world’s greatest democracy.

A number of experts with suspicions are pushing for recounts in certain swing states that Trump captured — counter to a string of pre-election polls — or at least audits of randomly selected votes.

The United States’ wholesale shift to electronic balloting after the 2000 Florida recount — with its punch cards and hanging “chads” — has left the systems open to outside, malicious tampering, elections-systems specialists warn.  (more...)

Calls grow for recount of U.S. vote amid concerns about Russian hacking

The Russians? The lamestream press lacks imagination:

Voteschwitz—So Near, yet so Farben

Former University of Waterloo vice-president charged with fraud

WATERLOO, Ont. -- A former University of Waterloo vice-president has been charged with fraud in connection with allegations he took a number of personal trips under false pretences during his time at the school.

Waterloo Regional police allege Kenneth McGillivray submitted expense claims to the university for reimbursements of more than $12,000 over a two-year period.

McGillivray, 63, has been charged with fraud over $5,000, forgery, uttering forged documents and criminal breach of trust.

A university press release from 2012 says McGillivray was hired that year as vice president of advancement with a focus on fundraising and alumni relations.

The school's president said at the time that McGillivray had an exemplary reputation for fundraising and alumni development while he worked at the University of Southern California.  (more...)

Former University of Waterloo vice-president charged with fraud

New owner of two Canadian medical journals is publishing fake research for cash, and pretending it’s genuine

The new owner of two prominent chains of Canadian medical journals is publishing fake research for cash, and pretending it is genuine.

OMICS International, based in Hyderabad, India, had a reputation as a “predatory publisher” when it bought Pulsus Group and Andrew John Publishing, two Canadian publishers of medical journals, earlier this year. Predatory journals print fake or incompetent studies to help unqualified academics pad their CVs and advance their careers.

OMICS has publicly insisted it will maintain high standards.

But now the company has published an unintelligible and heavily plagiarized piece of writing submitted by Postmedia News to test its quality control.

The paper is online today in the Journal of Clinical Research and Bioethics — not one of the original Canadian journals, but now jointly owned with them. And it’s awful.

OMICS claims this paper passed peer review, and presents useful insights in philosophy, when clearly it is entirely fake.  (more...)

New owner of two Canadian medical journals is publishing fake research for cash, and pretending it’s genuine

Related:

Scientists published controversial climate research under fake names. Then they were caught

Health Canada kept ‘predatory’ publisher despite warning about shoddy science from government expert

After fake boo-boo kissing study spreads online, ethicists slam medical journal

Facing sex charges, Sudbury teacher steps down

Sex charges against a former Lockerby Composite teacher have been dropped after he agreed to quit the profession.

Alain Bergeron also agreed to a peace bond, a Sudbury court was told Tuesday.

"There have been some unique developments since the trial was set several months ago," assistant Crown attorney Leonard Kim told Ontario Court Justice Andre. "(Bergeron) has resigned his teaching licence in Ontario and he has indicated he has not only resigned his certificate, but he has no intention to re-apply.

"It is in the Crown's interest not to proceed."

The one-year $500 peace bond includes a condition that Bergeron, 45, have no contact with, and remain away, from one male and eight female students at the school.

Those students were either alleged victims or witnesses in two sets of alleged sex-related incidents involving female students at the high school. They allegedly happened from January to June 2014, and on Oct. 30, 2015.

"(The students) were quite concerned when these matters took place," said Kim.

As a result of the peace bond being issued, charges of assault, sexual assault and sexual interference were withdrawn.  (more...)

Facing sex charges, Sudbury teacher steps down

Second footballer reveals abuse by serial paedophile Barry Bennell

Steve Walters playing for Crewe Alexandra

It was May, 1988, when a prodigiously talented teenager by the name of Steve Walters became the youngest player in the history of Crewe Alexandra, at the age of 16 years and 119 days, and it is a record that stands to this day at a club renowned for its production line of footballers.

Walters was a skilful, combative midfielder with a Plymouth accent, an eye for a pass and an almost obsessive desire to get to the top of the sport. He was at Lilleshall, the Football Association’s school of excellence, in the same crop as Andy Cole and Ian Walker, two future England internationals, and chose Crewe because of their reputation for giving teenage prospects a quick route to the first team. Tottenham Hotspur were among the clubs that wanted him but Crewe had their own attractions, with a heavy emphasis on youth development, and the young, impressionable Walters liked what he heard from the man who invited him to Gresty Road.

That man was Barry Bennell, the serial paedophile who has featured prominently in these pages over the last week and, until now, Walters has never felt able to talk publicly about what happened to him at Crewe, the shattering effects it had on his childhood and how, at 44, he has spent more than 30 years with everything bottled up, living with the secret that has distorted his life.

Then, last Wednesday, he read Andy Woodward’s interview about the years of sexual abuse and mental torture he suffered from Bennell, from the age of 11 onwards, and how his old friend feared that many others – hundreds, potentially – had been targeted by a man described by the American authorities as having “almost an insatiable appetite” for young boys.  (more...)

Second footballer reveals abuse by serial paedophile Barry Bennell

Related:

Former Manchester City star Paul Stewart says he was sexually abused by a coach as a young player

Paul Stewart fears there may be hundreds of other victims

Former England international David White reveals he was sexually abused by paedophile coach Barry Bennell

David White has named himself as another victim of paedophile football coach Barry Bennell

Six people contact police after Andy Woodward reveals sex abuse horror

Footballer reveals shocking abuse at hands of Manchester City scout - and claims he was the victim of a paedophile ring

Andy Woodward

Lawyers to make closing arguments in Brent Hawkes' gross indecency trial

KENTVILLE, N.S. -- Brent Hawkes' lawyers conceded Tuesday that teenagers drank alcohol at the Toronto pastor's Nova Scotia trailer during the mid 1970s, much to the prosecutor's surprise.

Crown lawyer Bob Morrison had intended to call rebuttal witnesses to testify that other students, and not only the three witnesses who testified last week at Hawkes' gross indecency trial, drank alcohol at his Greenwood, N.S., home.

But the defence said they didn't disagree with the Crown on that point, so there was no need to hear from the witnesses.

"It was a bit of a surprise," Morrison said outside the Kentville, N.S., courtroom on Tuesday, the fifth day of the trial. "That's not what I had recollected (Hawkes') evidence was... but the defence did concede that yes, in fact, he was aware that was taking place."  (more...)

Lawyers to make closing arguments in Brent Hawkes' gross indecency trial

Related:

Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes trial for sex crimes continues

Sex crimes trial of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes hears about 'imagination inflation'

The Trump effect and the normalization of hate in Quebec

There was a time when Daniel Gallant got up in the morning looking for his first fight. “I decided to
commit one assault a day, to show allegiance to my group”

There was a time when Daniel Gallant would get up in the morning looking for his first fight.

“I decided to show my dedication to the movement by committing an assault every day for a year,” said the former white supremacist, listing off his weapons of choice: his fists, a beer stein, a car door, billy clubs, a hockey stick.

Now Gallant, 41, who has turned the Swastika tattoo on his stomach into a raven, is trying to prevent others from following in his steel-toed boot steps down the same violent path.

His job just got tougher with the election of Donald Trump, he says.

David Duke, the former “imperial wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan who was running for the senate in Louisiana, was among the first to congratulate Trump on his election night victory, claiming some of the credit for his campaign.

Duke himself lost, but hours later, the KKK marched on the streets of North Carolina. They are planning a “victory parade” Dec. 3.

If anyone thought Trump, now elected, would distance himself from his more extreme backers, they will have to think again: Trump just named his campaign chief Steve Bannon –  the founder of the alt-right website Breitbart, and widely seen as racist, misogynist and anti-semitic – as his chief strategist and “senior counsellor.”  (more...)

The Trump effect and the normalization of hate in Quebec

Related:

Confessions of a former neo-Nazi: 'I would have killed people'

‘Heil the people! Heil victory’: The alt-right gathers to salute the next U.S. president

End London’s role as a clearing-house for dirty money

"London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained" was what Sherlock Holmes’s companion, Dr Watson, thought of the capital. Well, this week a cross-party coalition of MPs will be trying to drain the mire of its dirtiest elements.

The government’s criminal finances bill, with its crackdown on unexplained foreign wealth, secretive shell companies and high-level tax evasion, is a smart attempt to end London’s culture of money-laundering. But if we are really going to stop the capital’s property being used as a reserve currency by global kleptocrats, we have to go further. For London’s historic place at the heart of the empire has endowed it with the networks and skills, from the Square Mile to Caribbean tax havens, to become one of the world’s leading hubs for the dispersal and camouflaging of dubious funds.

In the late 19th century, as the scramble for Africa extended the British empire, London’s banks and accountancy firms funnelled cash around the colonies. Joseph Chamberlain called the City “the clearing-house of the world”, financing mining in New South Wales and tea plantations in India. In EM Forster’s Howards End, Henry Wilcox is said to have the “colonial spirit” as he successfully enriches himself at the Imperial and West Africa Rubber Company. With the capital flowed the ships and steamers out of the Thames, sitting on board one of which was Joseph Conrad’s traumatised Marlow, with his Congo tales of venturing “into the heart of an immense darkness”.  (more...)

End London’s role as a clearing-house for dirty money

Related:

Anti-terrorism tactics should be applied to tax havens, report says

Toronto Condo Inventory Disappearing Over 60% Faster Than Last Year

Sex crimes trial of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes hears about 'imagination inflation'

The nature and fallibility of memory was the focus of Brent Hawkes' gross indecency trial on Monday, in a case that has seen witnesses recounting events that happened more than 40 years ago.

Timothy Moore, chair of the psychology department at York University's Glendon College, testified that it is not uncommon for people with gaps in their memories to unconsciously insert memories and adopt them as real.

"Memories can undergo a substantial amount of modification over time and the longer the time, the more opportunity for misinformation to occur," Moore, an expert witness who was called by the defence, said in a courtroom in Kentville, N.S.

Hawkes is accused of performing sex acts on a teenage boy more than 40 years ago when the Toronto pastor was a teacher in his mid-20s in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. Hawkes, a prominent rights activist, has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and gross indecency.  (more...)

Sex crimes trial of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes hears about 'imagination inflation'

More coverage:

Sexual assault trial of Toronto pastor continues today in Nova Scotia

Background:

Church members show support for pastor on trial

‘Heil the people! Heil victory’: The alt-right gathers to salute the next U.S. president

Richard Spencer, a leader of the far right

WASHINGTON — By the time Richard B. Spencer, the leading ideologue of the alt-right movement and the final speaker of the night, rose to address a gathering of his followers on Saturday, the crowd was restless.

In 11 hours of speeches and panel discussions in a federal building named after Ronald Reagan a few blocks from the White House, a succession of speakers had laid out a harsh vision for the future, but had denounced violence and said that Hispanic citizens and black Americans had nothing to fear. Earlier in the day, Spencer himself had urged the group to start acting less like an underground organization and more like the establishment.

But now his tone changed as he began to tell the audience of more than 200 people, mostly young men, what they had been waiting to hear. He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donald Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.”

As he finished, several audience members had their arm outstretched in a Nazi salute. When Spencer, or perhaps another person standing near him at the front of the room — it was not clear whom — shouted, “Heil the People! Heil Victory,” the room shouted it back.  (more...)

‘Heil the people! Heil victory’: The alt-right gathers to salute the next U.S. president

In Canada:

Is Donald Trump’s victory emboldening hate-mongers in Canada?

In the UK:

Inside the mind of 'Jo Cox's killer': Man 'who shot and stabbed the MP watched YouTube footage of gunman and filled his home with Nazi paraphernalia'

Child sex abuse inquiry receives letters from four senior lawyers

Prof. Alexis Jay (left) and Ben Emmerson, QC

The Commons home affairs committee is to hold talks on the future direction of the independent inquiry into child sex abuse after receiving letters detailing the concerns of four senior lawyers who have quit the inquest.

A Home Office minister tried to reassure MPs on Monday that Prof Alexis Jay remains the right person to chair the troubled inquiry after the latest round of resignations and defections of survivors’ groups.

The Commons home affairs committee, chaired by Labour’s Yvette Cooper, is to meet in private on Tuesday to discuss the future of an inquiry that is now on its fourth chair, after the resignation of 17 lawyers and the withdrawal of several survivors’ groups.

The MPs are expected to order the publication later this week of letters from four barristers – including Hugh Davies QC, ex-deputy lead counsel to the inquiry – detailing their concerns over the conduct and management of the inquiry during the recent crises.  (more...)

Child sex abuse inquiry receives letters from four senior lawyers

Background:

Abuse inquiry chief on brink as lawyers who quit reveal all: Barristers set to lift the lid on toxic atmosphere

Politicians, lawyers arrested in Norway paedophile network probe

Norwegian police say they are investigating a paedophile network suspected to involve at least 51 people, which includes the abuse of infants and at least one case of a suspect acknowledging abusing his own children.

Deputy Police Chief Gunnar Floystad says that in Norway’s largest abuse case to date they have arrested 20 men so far, with three convictions, in western Norway. The 31 other suspects are from other regions in Norway.

Floystad told reporters Sunday that many of the suspects are highly educated, and include lawyers and politicians. He said he could not reveal more details pending the conclusion of the investigation, known as “Dark Room,” which began in 2015.

Prosecutors said the perpetrators met in the dark web, using encryption and anonymity to hide their tracks.

Source:

Politicians, lawyers arrested in Norway paedophile network probe

Church members show support for pastor on trial

The pews of Toronto’s Metropolitan Community Church brimmed with silent support Sunday for its embattled pastor, currently on trial for the alleged sexual assault of a teenage boy in the 1970s.

More than a hundred people attended the morning masses at the Riverdale church, during which there was only a fleeting direct mention of Rev. Brent Hawkes’ trial, reminding congregants of the church’s listening groups if anyone felt the need to talk.

But after the service, those in attendance emphasized that their longtime pastor is in their prayers.

Rev. Deana Dudley said the church is handling the matter “the same way we deal with anything.

“We offer support, we offer prayer, we offer love, we offer acceptance,” she said.

“I know some people have been upset by what’s going on, so then we just do more of the same — we offer more love, more acceptance, more support, more prayer.”  (more...)

Church members show support for pastor on trial

Related:

Sexual assault trial of Toronto pastor resumes today in Kentville, N.S., court

Background:

Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes takes stand at N.S. trial, denies sexual allegations

Synarchism and Communitarianism: A Synthesis of Ideologies

"Everything on it" - the grand synthesis

There have been attempts by several writers to explain communitarianism, but it's not an easy topic to fully understand or write about. Since it is a relatively new political synthesis, and because the meaning of the word "communitarianism" has changed over time, so has synarchism. It takes a while to grasp how far-reaching it is. The best way to describe the emerging form of global government is that it is a synthesis of ideas.

The communitarian plan for religion ends up being something very similar, which is a New Age synthesis that gives credibility to all religious faiths of the world. Each faith of the world will add its own distinguishable ingredient, so it will be recognized. This religion is like a Subway sandwich with "everything on it". It has Judeo-Christian elements, Islam, nature worship, along with aspects of other false faiths. It is much like the Bahá'í Faith. It recognizes one God, and hopes to see all faiths of the world reconcile their differences in worship of that one God - even though this view is an abomination to the One True God.

Synarchism is another ingredient that has been added to the communitarian synthesis. In actuality, it very well could be one-in-the-same as synarchism, or communitarianism is a reinvention of synarchism - but I have no proof to back either of those claims. Presented here are the similarities between synarchism and communitarianism, since both have foundational elements of the final form of world government. It too has the same characteristics of the Subway sandwich with "everything on it".

As you will see, both offer a synthesis of ideologies - stemming directly from the philosopher Plato. His studies in philosophy reconciled opposing views of other philosophers before him - one of them being the philosopher Heraclitus. He believed in the unity of opposites, stating that "the path up and down are one and the same", all existing entities being characterized by pairs of contrary properties. Unity of opposites is the central theme of dialectics, made popular by Plato and the German philosopher Georg Hegel. Both communitarianism and synarchism work on the dialectic, which makes them the perfect pair of Plato's philosophy straight from the pit of Hell.  (more...)

Synarchism and Communitarianism: A Synthesis of Ideologies Part 1     Part 2

Related:

The Christian Right and the Nazi Underground

The root of Pro-Life-Ism's "Ecumenism of the Trenches"?

Abuse inquiry chief on brink as lawyers who quit reveal all: Barristers set to lift the lid on toxic atmosphere

Professor Alexis Jay

The chairman of the troubled public inquiry into child abuse will come under increasing pressure this week as a string of lawyers finally reveal why they quit.

Professor Alexis Jay is set to be hit by damaging claims by barristers who have left the £100 million investigation that she knew there was a culture of bullying, harassment and even sexual assault but failed to act – then tried to cover it up.

None of the seven counsel who have left has publicly explained the full reasons for their departure.

And bosses of the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) sparked anger when they refused to tell MPs what had happened or why senior counsel Ben Emmerson QC had been suspended, placed under investigation, then allowed to leave the next day.

But now four of the lawyers have written to the Home Affairs Select Committee, which is looking into the chaos at the historical abuse probe, to give their version of events.  (more...)

Abuse inquiry chief on brink as lawyers who quit reveal all: Barristers set to lift the lid on toxic atmosphere

Related:

Child abuse inquiry 'to continue' despite survivors' withdrawal

Cops not naming names in Hamilton's horrible child abuse case

One lone name stood out on the press release outlining those charged in the monstrous serial molestation of a little Hamilton girl.

Can I remind you, she’s seven.

And while he was not directly connected to the little girl, the only name on that release was Geoffrey Burnet. And so far, he’s the only one we have.

According to cops, the girl’s mother’s boyfriend was allegedly offering her for sale on Craigslist. Seven people were arrested — no names. In the case of the mom and her boyfriend it’s easy to see why there were no names.

As for the others? Quite possibly relatives as well.

It brought back memories of the horrific police investigation called Project Jericho that ravaged the Eastern Ontario town of Prescott in the late 1980s.

The probe focused on a pedophile ring that had existed in the town for decades. Fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, grandfathers, sons and daughters. Generations of moral and physical debauchery, leaving profoundly broken people in its wake.

All were engaged in a carnival of horror and twisted despair with young children.  (more...)

Cops not naming names in Hamilton's horrible child abuse case

Background:

Nine charged in alleged online child sex exploitation ring in Ontario

Basketball coach had teen send him sex act videos, trial told

A 19-year-old man told a Toronto courtroom Friday how he was encouraged as a minor to shoot a video of himself performing a solo sex act and send it to his accused tormentor.

Jordan Cristoferi-Paolucci, a prominent Toronto-area basketball coach and law school graduate, has pleaded not guilty in the judge-only trial to 19 charges, including sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching, and making, accessing and possessing child pornography between Jan. 1, 2012 and May 29, 2013.

The teen, who cannot be named, is the first of three males who were aged 15-17 when they were allegedly coaxed into photographing or videotaping their genitalia after making bets with the accused about their penis size. The boys then texted the images or videos to the accused.

The teen told Justice Faye McWatt that he transmitted many images of himself performing solo sex acts as directed by Cristoferi-Paolucci.  (more...)

Basketball coach had teen send him sex act videos, trial told

Not a proud week for basketball coaches:

Retired teacher, 73, faces more charges of sex assault against students

Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes takes stand at N.S. trial, denies sexual allegations

A coach at my own high-school was reputed to date the cheerleaders. He was quite the narcissist.

Report 'any acts of hate' to police: TDSB

Toronto District School Board administrators are being told to report “any acts of hate” to Toronto Police for investigation.

A notification signed by Director of Education John Malloy and TDSB chair Robin Pilkey expresses concern about “a number of incidents of racism and hate” that have occurred in the city.

On Tuesday, someone who has yet to be identified spray-painted “it’s the Jews” on an outside wall of David Hornell Junior School in Etobicoke.

There have also been signs posted in East York addressed to “white people” who are “tired of political correctness,” and a separate incident on a TTC bus where a young man volleyed racially charged insults at another passenger.

“We have been hearing about different things in our community over the last little while that would speak to the kinds of experiences we don’t want to see,” Malloy said. “We are committed at the Toronto District School Board to create respectful and inclusive communities for all.”   (more...)

Report 'any acts of hate' to police: TDSB

Related:

Addressing the Recent Incidents of Racism and Hate in our City

Background:

Poster in East York being investigated as hate crime

It's unfortunate that such attitudes have been harbored by some people in the "social conservative" camp. People should think carefully about how it affects their credibility in the public square. Important issues can be undermined and even sabotaged by agendas smuggled in by provocateurs and agitators. Be wise as serpents.

Footballer reveals shocking abuse at hands of Manchester City scout - and claims he was the victim of a paedophile ring

Andy Woodward retired at the age of 29 because of the mental trauma he suffered

A footballer who was abused by his coach believes he was the victim of a paedophile ring in the game.

Andy Woodward suffered multiple attacks at the hands of scout and coach Barry Bennell while a youngster at Crewe Alexandra .

The pervert worked for the Cheshire-based lower league side and was closely linked to Manchester City and Stoke City.

Evil Bennell was jailed in the 1990s after admitting a string of sickening sex assaults against young footballers.

But Woodward, who played for Crewe, Sheffield United and Scunthorpe United, believes he was part of a wider paedophile ring.  (more...)

Footballer reveals shocking abuse at hands of Manchester City scout - and claims he was the victim of a paedophile ring

The horror of your abusing coach marrying your older sister & being forced to acknowledge him at family events/attending the wedding https://t.co/4HcGF7Ocqb

— Cassandra Cogno (@CassandraCogno) November 18, 2016